Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Wednesday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Wednesday as the trading volumes continued to remain thin as the year draws to a close. Investors are cautiously watching to see whether renewed selling in crude oil futures will dent sentiment. Though, positive cues overnight from Wall Street as well as European markets, capped some losses. Meanwhile, the Japanese stock market is higher due to the final trading day of the year 2015, with the positive lead overnight from Wall Street. Additionally, a weaker yen boosted exporters' stocks. Among the other Asian market, Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are down with modest losses. Bucking the trend, Indonesia, and Malaysia are higher.

Hang Seng dropped 100.20 points or 0.46% to 21,899.42, Straits Times declined 16.07 points or 0.56% to 2,872.15, Taiwan Weighted slipped 21.00 points or 0.25% to 8,272.91, Shanghai Composite decreased 2.60 points or 0.07% to 3,561.14, and KOSPI Index was down by 4.91 points or 0.25% to 1,961.40.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 71.83 points or 0.38% to 19,054.06, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 14.53 points or 0.86% to 1,699.89, and Jakarta Composite was up by 20.28 points or 0.44% to 4,589.64.